“There has to be a better way to learn this stuff,” said Brandon as he sloshed through stagnant water in the dark tunnels under the city. The old stone walls were widely spaced and made him think of ancient sewer systems. So far, he had been lucky to walk on the mostly dry pathways that lined each wall. But as the team got deeper the pathways became less prevalent.
“There is,” said Bert. “Normally there is the sparring ground where you can learn the basics. Then there are guilds and P.A.T. job boards where you can pick up the occasional basic missions. P.A.T. sometimes posts simple cleanup missions for the lower-level people in the city.”
“And the jobs that stick around forever,” grumbled Janet. “The ones that are miserable to do and their rewards are not worth the trouble. By the way I am taking your share on this one Bert. I still don’t know how you convinced me helping this one out here is even worth it.”
“You know why Janet,” Bert said holding the magically lit lamp up as they reached a four-way intersection. “The real benefit to this job is the experience Brandon will get trying out his new skills.”
“You would think that with all the magic people are throwing around, some of it could be used to keep the rats away,” said Brandon as he shielded his eyes from the bright light.
“Dire-rats,” said Bert. “And magic is what is attracting them.”
“What’s the difference?” Asked Brandon.
“Dire-rats are about fifty pounds, 3-4 feet long, and are not afraid of cats,” said Janet casually as she carried up the rear. “They are also usually around level 3 or 4. That is one of the reasons no one else picked up this job, trash payout for killing a few dozen 3 or 4s in the sewers, the chance that sometimes they swarm, and the rest of the stuff that can be down here in the sewers.”
“What do you mean the rest of the stuff?” asked Brandon with a quiver in his voice.
“You don’t have to worry about that. Just worry yourself with the rats,” said Bert.
Brandon heard a screech from the tunnel on his right.
“Sounds like one is coming for you now,” said Bert. “They don’t really like the light. It tends to attract them.”
Brandon looked down at the simple steel dagger Bert had given him when they entered the sewers. Then he looked over at the sword and shield that Janet wore.
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Item: Sword of Interruption
Description: This sword has a chance of inflicting a slow debuff or poison depending on the users fighting style
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“Don’t you have something better you can give me like that,” asked Brandon pointing at Janet’s sword.
“At this point it would be more of a handicap than help,” said Janet. “The idea is for you to learn what you can do and how your magic works.”
Janet straightened her dark green scaled leather; it gave a slight shine when the lamplight rolled over it. Her sword was at her hip and round shield held on one arm.
Bert had changed into a light leather overcoat and loose flowing pants. The dark brown, almost black coat had dark red runes running over one shoulder and blue over the other. His red hair and short beard were on display.
Brandon heard another scream from the edge of the lamplight as a huge rat appeared. It was covered in dark wet fur and was as big as a medium sized dog.
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Dire-Rat: Level 3
Description: A rat that has grown larger than normal feasting on mana.
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Brandon was normally a fan of rats. Small furry creatures that were surprisingly smart and cleaner than most people would think. This beast on the other hand was soaking wet and had chunks of refuse stuck to its fur from the sewers. Front teeth larger than Brandon’s hand protruded from its mouth as the rat cracked its tail like a whip.
Bert and Janet took a step back as the creature leapt forward.
Brandon was caught by surprise and raised an arm to block the incoming monster. With a small bit of luck Brandon’s forearm caught the rat in the back of the mouth, sharp front teeth slipped past his arm and tried to bite down but only the duller back teeth gnawed at his flesh.
Startled Brandon screamed and stabbed out with his simple steel dagger. In a moment of panic, he tried to use his static shock spell over and over, focusing the spell on his forearm that was trapped in the rat’s mouth. After two casts of the spell, it began to fizzle and become weaker. After five it failed to be called forward. The whole while he did not stop attacking the animal with his weapon.
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“Wow I think he actually got it,” said Janet from behind him.
Brandon slowly stopped stabbing as he realized the Dire-Rat was no longer moving. He pulled his arm from the creature’s mouth. With a thought he pulled one of the many strips of old cloth Bert had given him from his storage with a loud pop. The sound made him wince, but he quickly tied it around the bleeding section of his arm.
“You could have helped me at least,” said Brandon.
“That really isn’t the reason we are here,” said Bert. The man squatted down next to Brandon with his arms resting on his knees. “So, what did you do wrong?”
“I’m bleeding first off, aren't you going to help me?”
Bert looked at the injured arm, red slowly soaking through the bandage to the surface. “In time. What did you do wrong?”
Brandon sat there stunned.
“Didn’t you say he had some sort of skin armor ability Bert?” asked Janet.
Bert pointed to Janet. “First mistake,” said Bert. “What else Brandon?”
“I don’t know,” said Brandon slowly regaining his senses. “I tried to use my static shock spell, but it sort of just stopped working after a while.”
“Correct, that was your second mistake. Not managing your mana correctly.”
“Mana,” said Brandon. “You mean we really need mana to cast abilities?”
“Everyone uses mana. Everyone,” said Janet. “Elemental stuff like Bert, weapon enhancement skills like me, or the two you have, all are mana.”
“How should I have known that?”
Bert leaned in so that they were only a foot apart. “That is why we are here. And that is why we let you handle that Dire-Rat. You need to figure it out.”
“It would have been a lot simpler if you had just told me.”
“Could have, but it would not have helped in the long run,” said Janet. “If you had the same class set as us it MIGHT help. Magic doesn’t follow the same rules of reality as the old world. Sure, there are rules, but magic responds to intent and combines with more primitive laws that we are still trying to figure out, layered in some way on top of the old laws of physics.”
Screams sounded in the distance. Bert stood and held the lamp high shifting his head from side to side as if trying to listen as well as see. “We should have at least a few minutes before any more rats come our way. You may not want to hear this but take it for what it’s worth.”
“You have a detriment and a boon in your class. Multi classing opens up every available spell to you… Eventually… Unfortunately, the other side of the coin is that you will be terrible at everything.”
“If you face a fighter with fighter skills, yours will always be weaker. If you try to join a group as a healer, you will only be able to do a fraction of what a normal healer can.”
“The only thing I can tell you is to understand your use. Learn how you use mana with the two abilities you have. Learn why it fizzled out. Learn how it feels as it flows out for one ability vs the other. And experiment with new ways to use it. If you don’t learn to leverage the versatility of your class, you might as well just give up now.”
“On the plus side. If you train correctly, you will always be able to leverage the weaknesses of your enemies. Every spell and class have a weakness. Find them and leverage them.”
“I guess I can do that,” said Brandon. “Can you do anything about this for me right now though?” he asked holding up his bloody forearm.
Janet tossed him a red vial with a cork stopper and gestured for him to drink it.
“You mean the red health potion is really going to heal my arm?” asked Brandon.
“Takes blood to heal blood,” said Janet as she shrugged.
Brandon shrugged thinking it was not the strangest thing he had heard today and drank the concoction. A tang covered the taste of iron and cinnamon, not pleasant but not bad enough to make him gag. He could feel the skin on his arm stitching back together. After a moment he unwrapped the bandage to show a blood smeared but healed arm.
“Eventually you will be able to do some form of that yourself whether it is a potion or healing it with your mana,” said Bert. “I’ll see what I can do about tracking down some basic books talking about different spells?”
“You mean I can heal myself?” asked Brandon, mind racing on already wanting to try.
“Yes, but I would suggest you don’t try until you have a better handle on what you are doing. Learning from scratch can have some negative results if you are not careful.”
“Do either one of you need healing then?”
“You will not get near me with any sort of healing until you have learned what you are doing,” said Janet flatly. “But lucky for you I think you have a willing candidate there.” Janet pointed down to the rat on the ground.
Brandon looked down at the dire-rat. After thinking about it he could not come up with a reason not to try at least. The rat was already dead, it was not like he could kill it again.
Brandon leaned over the dead body of the dire-rat and placed a hand on it. He readied himself recalling what it was like to cast static shock but instead forced the mana into the dead creature willing it to heal the knife wounds. The rat started to tremble when Brandon had drained half his mana. When he reached 75% the rat began to buck back and forth. Right before Brandon cut the mana dump and try again another time, the rat abruptly exploded, sending chunks of various sizes in all directions.
Brandon who had been touching the creature was covered in gore and wiped the large chunks away. Bert and Janet, who were behind him some ways away, looked to have missed getting hit at all.
“That does tend to happen when you experiment with new abilities in the beginning,” said Janet trying not to laugh too loudly. “They either just fizzle out or explode until you can get some of it to catch.”
More dire-rats screamed in the distance as another sauntered its way into Bert’s lamplight.
“I suggest you use your defensive abilities this time,” said Bert as he and Janet once again let Brandon handle the creature on his own.